


Thank You

by bookmarkedpage



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Flirting, Fluff, help i'm trash, totally innocent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 00:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6588877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookmarkedpage/pseuds/bookmarkedpage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once, Chat Noir said, "Ladies in distress, girls to rescue, lots of saving awaits me! You can thank me later!" He left abruptly, and Marinette never did get to thank him. They cross paths again, and she gets to say it this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thank You

Marinette loves Paris in spring. Everything smells fresh with new growth, and the sun shines more as the days grow longer. On this particular Saturday, Marinette goes shopping for new flowers for her balcony after she helps her family in the bakery. She drops two cookies into her purse for Tikki, along with her phone and some money, and they head off to the flower shop. They spend a few hours in the shop, taking their time to sniff nearly everything. Tikki gives her input on which ones they should get. They purchase some packets of seeds, and some small daisies that have just begun to blossom, along with a pastel pink pot to grow them in. Marinette re-pots the flowers and leaves the flimsy plastic container behind for the shop owner to use again.

“They’ll look beautiful on the balcony, Marinette!” Tikki chimes from the purse. “They smell so good!”

“Hopefully not good enough for you to eat,” Marinette teases.

Tikki gives a small giggle. “I’m happy with cookies.”

Marinette takes her time strolling home, hugging the potted plant to her while she imagines how she would like to rearrange the flowers for this year. Lost in thought, she nearly stumbles into two children running toward her, and then the shouts ring out from a few blocks away. The tell-tale _crunch_ of metal grinding, and a cloud of dust floating up from the approximate area of the screams confirms Marinette’s guess that an akuma is ahead. She scans the area for a good place to duck and transform when the shadow of a hurtling car passes over her. She drops her plant and stumbles to get out of its way, and then in the blink of an eye the wind whips through her hair and arm grips her tight around her middle, and her face is pressed against black leather. She wraps her legs around him while he braces an arm behind her back.

“Hold on! Your knight in shining armor has returned,” Chat Noir says as they bound onto a rooftop.

It’s difficult to laugh while she’s being jostled around as Chat runs and leaps again, but she manages a light chuckle. “You can- leave me here- I don’t live far-”

“Ah, what sort of knight would I be if I abandoned such a fair princess so far from her tower?” he replies after they land, but he remains in place for a moment.

Marinette lifts her head from his shoulder to see how far they have traveled. They really are just three blocks from her home, and she needs Chat to get back to the akuma. She is about to point this out, but feels something brush against the top of her head; when she leans her head back, she swears she just caught Chat Noir sniffing her hair. “Did you just-”

“You live at that bakery, right? I’ll have you there in no time,” he says and doesn’t give her the chance to answer before they are vaulting off again. As frustrating as he can be ( _did he really just sniff her hair_ , although she _had_ just spent hours in a flower shop, but _still_ ), it it quite touching that he remembers where she lives. To him she’s just some random, ordinary civilian he’s bumped into a couple times. There’s no reason for him to remember where she lives. It’s rather sweet, to think she left some sort of impression on her partner as her everyday self.

Soon they land on her balcony. He sets her down carefully and holds her arms until her feet are flat on the ground.

“You didn’t have to do that. You’ve lost time fighting that- akuma thing,” Marinette says.

“But then this knight of yours would be far less gallant,” Chat Noir says and bows deeply. “You can thank me later. Until we meet again.”

Marinette can’t help but smile fondly. In a way, pretending around him like this is fun. “Wait!”

Chat pauses just as he is about to jump from her balcony railing. “Yes?”

“You said that last time, but I never got the chance,” Marinette says and bounds up to his side, then leans up on the tips of her toes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you. You’re the best knight I could hope for.”

To her surprise, he blushes and touches his cheek, eyes wide. “I-” he begins, then pauses, and slowly smirks. “I feel much more prepared to ride into battle, thanks to your favor, princess.” With that, he takes her hand and presses a gentle kiss to her knuckles, straightens, and gives her a brief salute before jumping from her railing.

Marinette watches him until he is out of sight, then opens her purse. Tikki zips out, and seconds later, Ladybug jumps from the balcony and follows Chat Noir toward the sounds of destruction.

 

*

 

Exhausted from the fight, Marinette sets out a plate of cookies on her desk for Tikki, then flops onto her chaise.

“So much for a relaxing Saturday,” Marinette grumbles. It’s seven in the evening, but she feels like the day may as well be gone.

“We can still plant the violet seeds,” Tikki says after swallowing a mouthful of cookie.

Marinette sighs. She’s tired, but tending to her flowers does sound nice, even though she is disappointed about her daisies and new flower pot lying smashed on the side of a sidewalk somewhere.

“Come on, Marinette. It will cheer you up,” Tikki says.

“Oh, all right,” Marinette says and pushes herself up.

Tikki is right, of course. Spending quality time with her plants does brighten her mood, and besides, flower pots can be replaced. Better to lose that than to have been injured and unable to help Chat Noir take down the akuma. She stands and brushes her hands on her shorts to get some of the soil off when Tikki gasps and takes off to her bedroom, fazing through the door. A second later, she hears a quiet “Oh-” to her right and she turns to see Chat Noir himself balancing on her railing with his baton in one hand and a pink flower pot full of daisies in the other. A slight blush spreads over his cheeks. He looks at her, then away and clears his throat.

Marinette is about to tease him, but then remembers that Marinette is supposed to be a random civilian who swoons over Chat’s heroics. “Twice in one day? I really am a lucky girl!” she says and presses the back of her hand to her forehead, pretending to feel faint. “What brings you here? I mean, I’m right where you left me, safe and sound!”

“I- well- earlier, I saw you drop these, right before…” Chat says and hops from the railing onto the balcony. He settles his baton behind his back and rubs the back of his neck with his free hand. “I was just going to leave them here and head home.”

Marinette studies the flowers and glances up at his face. Is he _embarrassed_ about getting caught?

“I didn’t expect you to be here,” he adds after a few seconds of silence.

“Well, I do live here. This _is_ my balcony,” Marinette says.

Chat smirks slowly, his stiff posture relaxing. “Oh, it’s _your_ balcony?”

“What does that mean?” She wonders how much she should encourage or allow Chat to flirt with her. Most people would be glad to have Chat Noir bring them flowers, right? Besides, it’s very sweet of him to even notice in the first place, and remember it, and to go out of his way to get new ones for her and drop them off personally.

“It means it’s _your_ balcony, not your family’s,” he says and holds out the flower pot. When she takes it, he walks around and studies her plants. “It’s fitting.”

She sets the pot aside. “Fitting?”

“You’re a princess in a high tower,” he replies.

She laughs. “You’re determined to keep going with this analogy, aren’t you?”

Chat Noir lifts an arm and flexes. “Do you disagree? Are you saying that I’m a lousy knight?”

Marinette laughs and rolls her eyes, reaching out to pat his arm until he lowers it. “Not at all. You’re the best knight I could hope for, remember? In fact, I’m very flattered that Chat Noir remembers where I live to begin with, and that he brought me flowers.”

He pouts slightly, and his cat ears droop. “Why wouldn’t I remember where you live? I… You helped me a few times. Why would you think I’d just forget you?”

The thing is, it never crossed her mind until today that he would remember her, or at least remember her well enough to know where she lives aside from coming by to “protect” her from the Evilustrator, and to retrieve the dolls before Manon could send Alya after them. Apparently Chat is more thoughtful than she gives him credit for. “I guess… because I’m just a civilian? And you save so many people all the time, I thought- it must be hard to remember them all.”

His smug smile returns. “But you’re not just a civilian, remember, princess?”

Ugh. What is she getting herself into? “Oh, right, of course.”

He leans over, his face near hers, and narrows his eyes as he studies her face. “I can’t tell if you’re mocking me or not. You were way more flattering the first time we met.”

“Maybe seeing you so much is making me more comfortable being around a famous hero,” Marinette replies, taking a step back. “Unless you’d prefer I go back to swooning and sighing?”

He straightens up and laughs, hands on his hips. “I like you better this way, being comfortable around me. It makes me feel comfortable, too.”

“I didn’t know that Chat Noir was capable of being uncomfortable. You seem so confident all the time,” Marinette says and lifts her watering can to water the daisies.

“I’m not in uniform all the time, princess. I only wear the armor when duty calls,” he says.

She laughs and sets the can down. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t you have turned into a pumpkin by now? The fight ended a while ago, didn’t it?”

His smile twitches for a second, but he waves a hand in the air. “It did, and I went back to being plain old ordinary me for a while. It gave me time to get the flowers and- recharge my batteries. It’s probably not the best idea to walk into a flower shop like this,” he says and gestures to himself.

“I can’t imagine why,” she says and laughs.

Chat smiles, wide and proud. “Some people might find it dis- _chat_ -ing.”

Marinette groans and pushes on his shoulders. “Okay, you need to go home now, Chat Noir.”

He captures her wrists. “Alas, my princess is displeased, but I will follow her command. Until we meet again, fair princess,” he says and presses a kiss to each of her hands.

She blushes. Why? She has no clue. It’s just Chat Noir, being his usual flirtatious self, after all. Nothing she hasn’t dealt with a hundred times. “You sound confident that we will.”

“Because I am,” he says and drops her hands.

Marinette leans up and presses a gentle kiss to his cheek. “Well, until then, be safe. Thank you, again. For saving me, and for the flowers.”

Chat’s smile is less smug and more… soft, she supposes, like there’s a familiar fondness behind it. “It was my pleasure,” he says, and then he’s leaping off of her railing and down to the street below.

She is torn between looking forward to their paths crossing again, and dreading it at the same time, because she isn’t sure if she just accidentally befriended Chat Noir, and what that could mean for her peaceful evenings to herself. There is, of course, the chance that it could be months before she runs into him again as herself.

Her gut tells her otherwise. He seemed determined and so sure that they would meet again, and if she’s honest with herself, it was refreshing to see him being so thoughtful and considerate toward her normal self, even if he still couldn’t help but flirt. He took the time to _plan_ the visit, and if what he said was honest, he hadn’t even intended to see her, just to leave the gift for her to find and be on his way. He just wanted to perform a random act of kindness. The thought warms her cheeks again, in a way that feels too familiar to her, and she doesn’t like the implication.


End file.
